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Wednesday, 5 December 2012

KRASA ~ a name made from the Slavic roots of words for beautiful, the colour red, delight, fiery, alive, dazzling... (and which possibly ever so slightly brings to mind a certain anarcho-punk band?!).

This is the new little trio that I'm playing in (and our business card, which I've just designed). You might find us these days on Devon street corners in red outfits busking for coins in the cold December sun. We'll be performing alongside esteemed musical comrades at the Feast of Fools, of course, but you can come and see us play for free next Thursday December 13th at the Sandy Park Inn, from 7.30pm.

Here we are playing at a party last week... we all look rather serious and engrossed in getting the notes right, and there are people talking in the background (about accordions and morris minors and drinking too much, amongst other things!), but it gives you a taste.

These are two Klezmer tunes: Freilechs noch der Khupe & Papirossen.

Lisa Rowe is on fiddle, Tim Heming is on clarinet and bass, and that's me on accordion. Thanks to Pete Montanez for the video.

I'm still battling the excruciating performance nerves; it's a strange combination of wholeheartedly loving and wanting to play this music and simultaneously finding doing it in front of people terrifying. Strangely this is only when it's an "official" gig - I feel quite at home playing round a fire and thoroughly enjoy busking; perhaps I shall always remain a vagabond. But I forge on through the fear nonetheless, so come along to the pub and cheer us on if you're free next Thursday and live nearby.

22 comments:

☆¸¸.•♥.love.♥..•*¨*★﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿ ☆.love﻿☆¸¸Ohh boy am i happy to watch this!!!!Mmmmm..soo great!!wow.i came over your website a time ago..i thought you were pausing..however..i wanted to read you.and saved you.and now your BACK :))))Thanx however you are you do a great job☆¸¸.•♥.love.♥..•*¨*★﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿

Oh! This is wonderful Rima! And so evocative - calling to my ancient european heritage.Thank you so much, I wish I could be there, but am sooo far away, across the oceans.What a wonderful atmosphere you three create. Here's to seeing more Krasa in the future! ♥

Lovely to see/hear your wonderful, evocative playing after seeing so many beautifully-odd musicians in your work. It seems you fully inhabit all of your art, which is really such a profound thing! xo, S

Wonderful... Going from painting alone or with a dog and a friend in a studio is so very different from performing. Teaching is the thing that, for me, has eased performing music out and speaking in front of hoardes of people. But you sound beautiful... hope your terror eases the more you play out!

Oh, I do wish I lived nearby indeed! I absolutely love Balkan/Klezmer music. I wonder if you have ever seen anything by Emir Kusturica? Enchanting movies and wonderful music by The No Smoking Orchestra and Goran Bregovic. If you haven't yet discovered this film maker, I promess you you will be enchanted, by imagerie and music! :-) xxxx

Thank you thank you all :) I so appreciate all your words.Suz - I did invent the word Krasa, based on various Slavic root words, as I describe :)Nanita - I know Kusturica's films well - brilliant eh. We also play Buba Maro from Black Cat White Cat :)

I try to read in your blog for several days now. You write a lot and your story sounds amazing :) It will take several month until I will maybe read half of your articles :)

For this one... I love the music. Actually I am not a big fan of folk music. But this sounds really good. Just - please - tell the people next time to shut up when you play. :) It is very disturbing if you (me) like to enjoy the music.

I like your style to life and try by myself to find a better way to life the live. More open and much closer to nature. Till now... it's not working to escape from my current life. But I hope soon. One plan is also to travel around UK. Especially the north. But maybe I also have a longer stay in the south... may we can met this time... if you have time. Seems like you are a busy woman :)

About Me

Rima Staines is an artist using paint, wood, word, music, animation, clock-making, puppetry & story to attempt to build a gate through the hedge that grows along the boundary between this world & that. Her gate-building has been a lifelong pursuit, & she hopes to have perhaps propped aside even one spiked loop of bramble (leaving a chink just big enough for a mud-kneeling, trusting eye to glimpse the beauty there beyond), before she goes through herself.

Always stubborn about living the things that make her heart sing, Rima’s houses have a tendency to be wheeled. She currently dwells in an old cottage on top of a hill on the edge of Dartmoor with her beloved, Tom, & their big-hearted, ice-eyed lurcher, Macha.

Rima’s inspirations include the world & language of folktale; faces of people who pass her on the street; folk music & art of Old Europe & beyond; peasant & nomadic living; magics of every feather; wilderness & plant-lore; the margins of thought, experience, community & spirituality; & the beauty in otherness.

Crumbs fall from Rima’s threadbare coat pockets as she travels, & can be found collected here, where you may join the caravan.